Conquest 2183
by Battlepiggy
Summary: The pressure is on for the crew of the Normandy as they hunt down a rogue council Spectre who is hell-bent on bringing the destruction of the galaxy. It is during this time certain members of the crew begin to discover they are fighting for a lot more then they initially indented. Rated T for now may change to M at a later stage.
1. Chapter 1 - Fresh Start

**Hi everyone! This story will cover the events of Mass effect 1 with a slight change to the original story, in that I am introducing an original character. I am also going to refrain from using any scenes from the game that are not essential to the main plot development, so if I miss stuff out it will be deliberate.**

 **I rarely do anything in way of 'creative writing' so this is a first for me. I am open to any type of feedback, as I am always looking to improve.**

 **Hope you enjoy it.**

 **Clean Slate**

 **2183**

 **Earth**

 **Vancouver – Alliance Docks**

Second Lieutenant Derek Shaw found himself staring, kit bag over shoulder, at the Alliance's newest prototype stealth ship, the [SSV Normandy]. Built in conjunction with the Turian Hierarchy, the Normandy was a revolution in naval design, having a long and sleek body frame. Reaching around two hundred meters in length, the mighty frigate was equipped with state-of-the-art stealth technology, perfect for deep space reconnaissance. Its internal emission sink allowed it to hide its heat signatures in sinks within its hull, turning the hull into a refrigerated exterior. The Normandy's drive core was just as much of a prototype as the ship itself, giving it the ability to travel without its thrusters. Her GARDIAN laser defense, kinetic barriers, and spinal Mass Accelerator Cannon were all standard-issue, but this did not take away from her alluring features.

The background noise of the spaceport, ranging from the sound of talk and footsteps produced by the hundreds of people there to the periodic whistle of a ship taking off or coming into dock was drowned out as Derek stared silently, still trying to process the fact that he had been assigned to this exceptional specimen of a ship. Given how things had been going for him the past five years this seemed like an unbelievable dream.

He had been told to report to Captain David Anderson on the Crew deck of the Normandy at 1500 hours. Looking down at his Omni-tool, he found that he was in good time. Derek walked up the ramp of the dock to the boarding arm, where he was met by the entrance door. He suddenly heard a male voice over the PA system; it was mixed with a tone of disdain and boredom "look into the scanner." it said.

Derek's head began to wander as he searched for said scanner.

"It's above you head." the voice snapped.

Derek saw it and look at it, a couple of seconds later he heard a different animated female voice begin to speak.

"Name: Shaw, Derek. Rank: Second Lieutenant. Date of Birth: June 28th, 2156. Nationality: British. Eye colour: blue. Hair colour: blonde. Height: 6'1". Weight: 190lbs."

"Alright that matches up, come on through." The previous male voice said, sounding more unenthusiastic than the pre-recorded female voice.

The door suddenly hissed opened and Derek stepped through it. As soon as he was through, he door shut behind him automatically. "Decontamination in progress," he heard the same female voice say. He guessed it was most likely a V.I onboard the ship.

A series of lights began to turn on and a chemical spray began to spout out of the ceiling accompanied by a white beam that moved along the ceiling and wall, across the small room towards him. I can see this is going to take some getting used to he thought with a sigh, as the beam passed over him again.

After the process had ended, the door in front of him opened up. He found himself on board what appeared to be the Normandy's command deck. The airlock he had entered from was at one end of the bridge, which was a long, narrow corridor with rows of chairs and consoles running down either side of it, there were people seated at the consoled furiously tapping away. To Derek's left, at one end of the bridge was a cramped cockpit.

The owner of the voice that he had heard on the PA system, a man with mousey brown hair and a light beard, presumably the pilot, given where he was seated in the cockpit and the fact that he was wearing a cap, turned around, and said

"The Captain is in the CIC." he pointed down to the other end of the metallic corridor, which opened up into a large, brightly lit room.

"Cheers," Derek mumbled.

The pilot had already turned around to look at the dashboard and simply waved over his shoulder not bothering to say anything in reply.

Derek walked down the gloomy corridor and found a surge of people moving at frantic pace around the CIC, much like in the spaceport outside. The room was almost semi-circular in shape and like the bridge; the room had several chairs and screens skirting the edge of the room. In the middle of the CIC was a large Galaxy map display, used to help navigate the ship.

Derek immediately spotted, a dark-skinned man wearing a blue Alliance officer uniform at the back of the crowd, the man whom he had been looking for. Captain David Anderson, commanding officer of the SSV Normandy, stood at the far end of the room by a wall talking to a red-haired woman. Derek could have sworn he recognised her from somewhere but could not quite place her.

Derek meandered his way across the room over to Anderson, avoiding any collisions with the other crewmembers. He stood at a distance behind the Anderson, at which point the red-haired woman said something to the Captain and nodded her head towards Derek. Anderson turned to face him. Derek placed his kit bag on the floor.

"Second Lieutenant, Derek Shaw reporting for duty, sir." He said proudly while snapping into a quick salute.

"At ease lieutenant." The older man said in a deep homely voice.

"I'll give you some space." The red-haired woman said and turned to leave to a lower deck of the ship.

"I take it you are aware of the mission details?" Anderson asked.

"The description was very vague, sir. I read we were heading to Eden Prime on a shakedown run and something about a Turian Spectre joining us?"

"That's correct lieutenant, don't worry about the Spectre for now, you'll be filled in with more detail when we get closer to our destination."

"Alright, do you need me anywhere now Sir?"

"You're alright for now lieutenant, just talk to Shepard, my XO and she'll help you get settled in."

Derek's eyes widened, now he knew why he had found the red-haired woman to be so familiar. She was Commander Jane Shepard, renowned for being the only member of her unit to survive an attack of Thresher Maw's on Akuze back in 2177.

"The Commander Shepard?" Derek asked in a slightly quieter tone to what he had been using previously mainly due to the shock of his discovery.

"The one and only." Anderson chuckled. "I wouldn't go looking at her like that when she's in the room though. She isn't big on people gawping at her." He continued, in his model professional tone.

"Sure, got it Sir." Derek replied, with a sheepish smile, slightly embarrassed by his juvenile reaction.

"Alright, make sure she introduces you to all the major personnel on this vessel and the people you'll be working with during the mission. I'll see you later when we're closer to the colony."

"Thank you Sir." Derek said and shook his Captain's hand before he departed to the lower levels of the ship.

Derek picked up his kitbag and walked down to the Crew Deck to look for the Commander. He walked past the elevator at the bottom of the staircase and turned the corner passed a central elevator to see the near-empty Mess hall. To the far left of it was a series of seats with a monitor screen, at which a tall dark haired, olive-skinned man was working. To the right of the mess hall was the Med-bay, which had mildly tinted windows. Extending from the Mess hall down the middle of the deck was a corridor with multiple sleeper pods on either side.

Derek decided it best to ask the man by the monitor where he could find Shepard as there was no sign of her, he was sure he would have to speak with him at some stage eventually anyway.

"Hey there." Derek said to the man.

The man turned from the monitor to look at Derek.

"Hi. I am Staff Lieutenant Alenko, head of Marine detail, what can I help you with," he replied in a gravely voice and extended his hand.

Derek shook it, grateful for his friendly manner.

"Second Lieutenant Derek Shaw, good to meet you. I don't suppose you have any idea where I could find Commander Shepard?"

"Sure, I think I saw her head down to the cargo bay just a moment ago, just take that elevator down." He pointed over Derek's shoulder.

"Thanks." Derek replied with an appreciative smile.

Once the elevator had finally reached the cargo bay, the doors opened and he scanned the darkened room for a sign of the Commander. He spotted her inspecting a large tank-like vehicle to the right side of the bay, more commonly known as a Mako.

Derek had been informed when receiving his assignment that he would be driving the Mako during any missions that required him to during his time on the Normandy. Thankfully that did not mean he needed to do maintenance on it.

He strode across the cavernous bay towards her, his footsteps echoing as he did so.

"Commander Shepard?" He said.

She turned her head to meet him with piercing green eyes. Then she gave him a welcoming smile.

"Second Lieutenant Shaw, isn't it?" She asked, shaking his hand.

"Yes Ma'am." He said with a smile, impressed with how quickly she had picked his name up from just hearing him say it once to Anderson.

"Good to have you here, welcome aboard. I suppose I should show you around so can get settled in."

"Sounds good to me." He said with an enthusiastic edge to his voice.

"That's what I like to hear, you can drop your kitbag in one of those lockers by that workbench." She pointed towards the other side of the bay.

He did as he was told and slung the bag into the bottom of one of the unclaimed lockers.

"Alright follow me and I'll need to introduce you to the core personnel who keep this ship functioning." She said.

They took the elevator back up to the Crew deck, where she led him across to the Med-bay. There Derek could see several beds on one side and an impressive range of medical equipment on the other side. There was a middle-aged, grey-haired woman attending to a young man, who by the looks of things was receiving a medical check-up. She turned to face him and the Commander and gave them a warm smile.

"Oh. Hello Commander." She replied in a warm British accent.

This made Derek beam back at her given that he was British as well.

"Lieutenant Shaw this is Doctor Karin Chakwas. Given her profession you will probably want to try and avoid seeing her as much as possible if you know what's good for you." Shepard said in a joking tone.

This made the Doctor chuckle.

"It's good to hear a voice that's close to home Doctor." Derek said.

"Oh my, what a pleasant surprise, just as I was beginning to think there were no Brits left in the Alliance." She replied cheerfully.

"Well at least I know you two will get along fine." Shepard said with a smirk on her face. "Oh I almost forgot. Lieutenant, this is Corporal Richard Jenkins, one of your squad mates."

"Hey there." Derek nodded to the younger man who was still being examined by the Doctor.

"Hi Sir." He nodded, acknowledging Derek.

This made Derek smirk to himself at the though of being called "Sir" the first time that day, he had to admit he felt more comfortable being reminded that he was one of the higher ranks on the ship.

"Alright, let's move on." Shepard said.

They crossed the mess hall to where Lieutenant Alenko was still working at the monitor. He turned to face them, as he heard them approaching. He gave them both a wide smile, wider than he had given to Derek during their first encounter.

"Lieutenant Shaw this is Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko head of..."

"We've already met Commander." Kaidan said interrupting her.

"Wow! I'm impressed Kaidan. I didn't know you had it in you to make friends so quickly." She teased.

Kaidan rolled his eyes and shook his head but smiled all the same.

"If you were wondering if she is always this patronising, you'll be relieved to hear it's only towards me." He said to Derek, who had his brows furrowed by the exchange between his two senior officers.

"If you have any trouble with any of your crewmates, you can always have a discreet word with you're XO, Alenko. Oh wait…" She said with a subtle gleam in her eyes.

"I'll bare that in mind for the future, thanks Commander." Kaidan retorted, playing along with Shepard's mockery.

Shepard gave Kaidan a very brief but warm smile and turned to Derek.

"Another one of your squad mates for the mission. Come on, we should leave the Lieutenant so he can think over his troubles alone."

She then turned back to Kaidan and winked at him, leading Derek away to the staircase. Derek looked back over his shoulder quizzically at Kaidan who was leaning back, arms-crossed, shaking his head and smirking. He just shrugged in response.

Derek then found himself back in the CIC, where Shepard led him passed the large galaxy map in the centre of the room to a tall balding man, wearing Alliance dress blues who stood at the front of the CIC.

"Derek, this is Navigator Charles Pressley. His team will be giving you the details about the planets we'll be landing on for when you'll be driving the Mako or just in case you ever feel that our pilot has managed to get us lost." Shepard said light-heartedly.

"In case you were wondering, we're still on Earth." The older man smiled, giving his hand for Derek to shake.

Derek took it "Lieutenant Shaw, good to meet you Presley."

They then walked down the corridor, past the entrance of the ship to the plot, who was still seated in his chair.

Shepard began her introduction with a sigh

"And last but by no means least, Lieutenant Shaw this is our pilot, Flight Lieutenant Jeff "Joker" Monroe."

"Welcome aboard the SSV Normandy, the best ship in the fleet, accompanied by me the best pilot in the fleet." The pilot said introducing himself in a showman-like manner by removing his cap and gave it a flourish as he brought it down to his chest, although he did not stand up.

Derek chuckled, "Don't lack for modesty do you pal?" he said sarcastically.

"Wait until you see me get this bird in the air, then you'll realise that I'm not gloating." The pilot said, replacing the cap on his head and giving a light adjustment.

"At least now you don't have to ask why we call him "Joker"." Shepard said, rolling her eyes.

"Who says I'm joking?" Joker asked.

Shepard shook her head and Derek just laughed at the eccentricity of the man.

"How has everything been going up here Jeff?" Shepard asked, ignoring his boast.

"Oh, you mean me being the ships doorman? Yeah it's great, best part of the job if you ask me." He said sarcastically. "Seriously though I'm glad I went to flight school I don't know how I would be able to identify people through a camera lense if I hadn't gone." He continued, more bitterly now.

"Someone's got to make sure that we have the correct crew, we don't want some imposter showing up and jeopardising our mission. Besides it's not like you can fly the ship while we're grounded." Shepard said coolly not even remotely angry with the cynical pilot.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I get a little impatient when I stop flying for a long time."

"Oh yeah, when was your last tour of duty?" Derek inquired.

"About a month ago." Joker said in a 'can-you-believe-it' kind of tone.

Derek gave a silent gulp. A month! Try five years! He almost screamed but contained himself.

"Oh. Right." He said instead.

"We've got one more stop to make before I let you go." Shepard said to Derek in a hope to prevent any more small talk between him and Joker.

"What you're leaving me here? Weak!" Joker called from his seat, as they left him.

Derek followed Shepard all the way back down to the crew deck.

"Alright, over there are the sleeper pods and this is the mess hall. The Captains quarters are right over there." She gestured to a door on the far left of the deck.

"I recommend that you rest up here until we are in orbit of Eden Prime." She looked down at her Omni-tool giving it a few taps, then back up at him.

"ETA is in 0600 hours. I think you will do just fine once things get rolling. I look forward to seeing what you can do out on the field. I've heard a lot about you." She said with a knowing look on her face.

The last comment threw Derek, causing him to subconsciously gulp. He didn't know how to respond to that.

His thoughts were cut off as an announcement came over the PA "XO Shepard to the CIC. Repeat, XO Shepard to the CIC."

"And that would be our Spectre guest who's coming with us. I suppose this is when I say, 'see you later'." She said.

"Thank you for the tour." He replied.

"You're welcome."

And with that she shook his hand one final time and headed back up to the CIC, leaving him to his own devices.

Her previous words were still buzzing in his head. For the past five years he had been struggling to earn any recognition from his superior officers, so he found it hard to believe when Shepard of all people told him that they had even the slightest degree of confidence in him and that they were even considering giving him a chance to prove his potential.

Could _this_ be break he needed to get himself and his career back on track?


	2. Chapter 2 - At First Sight

**At First Sight**

The Normandy's Tantalus drive rumbled through the corridors of the ship as it caused the ship to gracefully manoeuvre out of the dock. Her thrusters flared to life, making the ship sour out of Earth's atmosphere, finally becoming airborne.

If any of the crew chose to look out of the windows half an hour later, they would have seen the Normandy passing through the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, as they headed to the fringes of the Sol System where the Charon Mass Relay was located.

Another three hours later the PA system filled with the all too familiar voice of her pilot.

"The Arcturus Prime Relay is in range. Initiating transmission sequence."

Any minute now the crew of the Normandy would find themselves in an entirely separate part of the galaxy, which known to humanity for the past thirty-one years.

"We are connected…Calculating transit mass and destination."

The blue glow of the Charon Relay was now becoming magnified as the SR-1 flew directly towards it, zooming in closer and closer on its target.

"Relay is hot…Acquiring approach vector…All stations, secure for transit...Board is green…Approach run has begun."

Joker skilfully swerved the Normandy around on its correct trajectory aiming to just skim the blue orb in the Relay's centre.

"Hitting the relay in 3…2…1."

The Normandy was flying parallel with the Relay's core, which was shooting beams of blue energy at the vessel. At that moment the subtle hum of the drive core turned into a dulled fizzing roar as the ship was propelled thousands of light years across the galaxy from the Sol system.

A mere few seconds had passed and the Normandy was now in the Utopia system of the Exodus cluster, where the human colonized world of Eden Prime was located.

Derek couldn't help but feel slightly giddy whenever he had the privilege of being on board a ship that passed through a Mass Relay; especially since lately it had been a novelty for him.

He had been asleep during the Normandy's journey up until the point Joker's voice had come on the PA system. They were roughly two hours away from Eden Prime now, so Derek decided it would be appropriate to find out more about his squad mates, given that they were about to work together for the first time.

He walked over from his sleeper pod towards the monitor where Kaidan had been working, although he was not there. Derek decided to head up to the command deck to try and find him.

The CIC was still packed with people. Derek began to scan the room and saw Doctor Chakwas and Jenkins standing at the back wall. He walked over to them.

"Sir," Jenkins said with a quick salute.

Derek gave him a small nod in response. "How are you holding up Jenkins?"

"Oh, I can't wait to hit groundside Sir. I'm itching for some real action."

"I sincerely hope you're kidding Corporal. You're idea of 'real action' usually involves me patching up crew members in the infirmary." Said Chakwas with deep concern in her voice

"You need to relax Jenkins. Don't try acting out any unnecessary heroics because if you get it wrong it can come back and bite you in the ass." Derek said in a calm voice.

"Sorry Sir. I'm just impatient. Especially given that there's a Spectre on board."

"I wouldn't get too worked up about it. Treat it like any other assignment and you will do just fine."

"That's easy for you to say Sir; you probably do this type of thing the whole time."

"Actually I haven't, for a long time. Take my word for it corporal, you don't want to shoulder a responsibility you aren't prepared to carry." Derek said in a more stern voice and boy did he mean what he said.

"Sorry Sir. Don't worry I won't screw this up." Jenkins said sounding far less enthusiastic than he had a few seconds ago.

"Thank you leutenant." said Chakwas with relief. "Would you come with me to the infirmary, I need to put you on the ships medical database and give you a check-up before you deploy."

"Sure thing doctor."

Once they were in the med-bay the doctor began scanning Derek with her Omni-tool.

"Ah, another biotic." she said after a few seconds had passed.

"Another?" Derek said with slight confusion.

"Yes, Lieutenant Alenko is a biotic as well."

"Really? That's good news. I was hoping I wouldn't be the only one on board."

"Well, you are the only person on board with L3 implants by the looks of things." She said looking down at her Omni-tool.

"Oh. Kaidan must be an L2 then." Derek said, saddened by the thought. He knew L2 implants were infamous for causing their users to suffer from severe medical conditions, luckily for him L3 implants didn't have the same effect.

"Yes Kaidan suffers from migraines regularly. Although I have heard he is exceptionally powerful for a human biotic."

"Interesting." He was surprised to hear that an L2 Biotic was capable of serving in the military.

Derek had never fully relied on his biotic abilities as he found them challenging to master. So naturally he relied on close quarter combat and weaponry to maximise his efficiency on the battlefield. He had never bothered to learn any of the fancy tricks some soldiers were able to perform with their Omni-tools. He hadn't the patience for it.

"Alright, I've got you logged in the database. You're free to go now" said Chakwas.

"Thanks Doc." He said, heading for the Med-bay door.

…

Derek had been acquainting himself with other members of the crew for roughly an hour until he had been told by Shepard to head down to the cargo bay to suit up for deployment.

He took the elevator down with her and saw Alenko and Jenkins suiting up themselves, with Captain Anderson and the Turian Spectre, Nihlus standing by. They were no more than ten minutes out from the planet's surface.

While he suited up he listened in to the conversation Anderson, Shepard and Nihlus were having.

"Shepard, you're team need locate the Beacon and secure it for transport ASAP." Anderson began.

"Uh, did I miss something?" Derek said quietly to Kaidan.

Kaidan sighed as he went into a long explanation. "Our original mission was to retrieve a Prothean beacon and bring it back to the Citadel but we just received footage of the colony being attacked."

Derek was astonished; he would never have envisaged something that should have been a simple 'shakedown run' to turn into such a covert operation.

"Prothean? Like the archives they found back on Mars?"

"Yeah."

"So why is the turian here?"

"He's representing the Council's involvement in this assignment." Kaidan then lowered his voice "I think he's also here to evaluate Shepard."

"Evaluate her? Why?" Derek said, matching Kaidan's volume.

"Spectre candidacy." Kaidan's voice a mere whisper now.

Derek's eyes widened and he gulped silently. "So this is a pretty big deal then." Instantly regretting the criticism he had given Jenkins earlier on.

"Yeah. That's one way of putting it." Kaidan chuckled nervously.

Derek didn't say anything more and continued putting his gear on. After tightening the final straps on the greaves of his Onyx armour set, he secured his helmet in place, wiping its visor clean of a thin layer of dust that had settled over it and then walked over to stand at attention by Shepard's side with Kaidan and Jenkins.

Seconds later the Cargo bay door opened revealing the blood red sky which was blotted by thick, black clouds of smoke from the burning colony below. Everyone was dead silent as the sight before them sunk in. The cargo hold began to fill with the smell of bitter smoke accompanied by the subtle soundtrack of roaring fire, which could barley be heard over the now deafening roar of the ships engine outside.

"Dear God." Anderson said, so quietly that Derek wasn't sure whether he'd heard the Captain say anything.

"Approaching drop point one." Joker's voice could be heard over the PA system.

Nihlus began moving over towards the opened cargo bay door.

"Nihlus are you coming with us?!" asked Jenkins who sounded anxious for the first time that day, the sight of the burning colony clearly getting to him.

"I move faster on my own!" raising his voice to compete with the noise of the engine. And with that he ran and jumped out onto the planets surface.

"Nihlus will scout out ahead. He'll feed you status reports throughout the mission!" said Anderson, who'd now regained his voice.

"We've got his back Captain!" said Shepard with admirable confidence.

"The mission's yours now, Shepard. Good luck!"

"Approaching drop point two."

The squad of soldiers jumped out of the cargo hold onto the planets surface. They began moving at a quick pace down a wide dirt path, which was had large rocks scattered along it.

The effects of the attack became more vivid the further they progressed as the sight of burning buildings in the distance became revealed to them.

"Hold up." Shepard whispered abruptly, raising her hand to a 'halt' signal. "I hear something up ahead. Shaw, Jenkins…" She extended her arm and pointed ahead giving an 'advance' signal to the two soldiers.

They each gave her a silent nod of acknowledgment and moved very slowly watching their step as to not make a noise and alert any hostile threat that might be ahead.

Then out of nowhere two flying 'drones', for lack of a better word, zoomed around the corner where the path turned off and opened fire on the two soldiers.

"Get down!" Derek yelled to Jenkins as he dived off his feet behind a large rock where he took cover, narrowly avoiding the shots fired by the drones as they hit the area where he had been standing a split second later.

However, Jenkins stood there dumbfounded and took aim with his assault rifle. He opened fire but to no effect. He was hammered violently by shots fired from both drones. He screamed in agony and fell to the ground, where he lay dead seconds later.

"Shit!" yelled Derek and quickly peered out from behind the rock he was using for cover. He instantly blasted one of the drones with his shotgun, taking it out just as easily as one might destroy a clay pigeon.

He switched targets and taking aim at the second one but refrained from pulling the trigger as it spontaneously blew up thanks to Kaidan's use of an overload blast from his Omni-tool.

The three remaining soldiers moved over to their now deceased comrade.

Kaidan examined the body "Those shots ripped right through his shields. He never had a chance." He said sadly, turning to face Shepard.

"We can't help him now." Shepard sighed, slowly shaking her head "The missions the priority, let's move it."

The soldiers headed up the path towards where the drones had come from, encountering more on the way. The three of them made quick work of them however and neither of them was injured.

They continued along the path until they came to an opening. Seconds later they saw what appeared to be a female soldier wearing pink and white armour running from two more drones. She dived onto her back and fired at one of her pursuers with a pistol, destroying it immediately. She got back to her feet and ran to a large boulder for cover drawing her assault rifle from its holster.

As the three soldiers ran towards her to help they saw two synthetic humanoid figures turn away from a human male, whom they had just impaled on a grotesquely large mechanical spike, approaching from the same direction she had come from.

As quick as a flash Derek fired a biotic projectile at one of her pursuers, knocking it clean off its feet, the soldier wearing pink and white then finished it off with her assault rifle. Kaidan fried the remaining drone with an overload and helped Shepard finish off the other humanoid synthetic she had been firing at with a clean shot to its flashlight-like head from his pistol.

A brief moment of silence passed as the squad allowed the woman wearing pink and white armour to catch her breath. Finally she spoke up.

"Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212. You the one in charge here ma'am?" She said facing Shepard.

"I'm Commander Shepard. These are Lieutenants Alenko and Shaw." She gestured to each of the men respectively. "Can you tell me what happened here Williams?"

"Oh man." She began to anxiously pace up and down. "We were patrolling the perimeter when the attack hit. We tried to get off a distress call but they cut off all our communications. I've been fighting for my live ever since." She said panting, sadness laced in her voice. She was still trying to catch her breath both from the fighting and the shock of all that had happened.

Derek couldn't help but feel an immense amount of sympathy for her.

"Do you have any idea who or what those things were?" Shepard asked gently.

"I'm not sure but I think I heard one of my squad mates call them geth."

"Geth? Why would they be here? They haven't been outside the veil in nearly two-hundred years?" Kaidan said, speculating.

"They might be here for the Beacon." Derek suggested, shrugging his shoulders.

"Can you take us to it?" Shepard turned to ask Williams.

"Yeah, the dig site is just over the rise." She pointed to where she meant.

The squad of four hurried to the dig site and found it empty. Williams suggested they head towards the research camp nearby to see if it had been moved there.

Upon arriving at the camp the squad discovered more impaled bodies on the large mechanical spikes this time with synthetic looking figures on them. However, they were different to the previous two they had encounter as they looked disturbingly more human.

"Keep your guard up." Shepard cautioned.

Then almost deliberately the spikes lowered and the figures, which had appeared dead, rose up off of them and ran towards the squad.

"Oh God, they're still alive!" Kaidan exclaimed in horror.

There were four in total. When the closest one reached them Derek let off a powerful bioticly charged punch straight into its face, giving off a distinct crunching sound as it made impact; it fell and did not get back up. Kaidan was able to lift the remaining three with his own biotics, allowing the two female soldiers to cut through the suspended figures with their assault rifles.

They decided to investigate the research camp, which turned out to be empty, bar the grazes on the wall from gunfire and few streaks of blood they found smeared against the walls inside the buildings. They didn't need to question what had happened to the bodies.

Ashley suggested that they move over to the spaceport, as the beacon might have been moved their instead.

A second before they turned the corner they heard the loud crack of a gunshot, ring through the air. The four soldiers prepared themselves for combat.

They turned the corner and were at the top of a hill overlooking the large spaceport. It was at that moment an indescribable fear passed through the minds of all of them - the type of fear one gets when they realise they are alone and they are incapable of crying out for help, because they know help won't be the thing that answers – such was there fear, when they saw a ship that was as black as night and more terrifying than any demon from any depth of hell imaginable ascend slowly from the ground into the blood red sky. It cracked out bright red flashes of what looked like electricity and emitted a mechanical roar, which the four soldiers felt more than heard, tear through their skulls into their minds. Each clenched their heads and covered their ears in agony. Eventually it vanished into the blackened clouds above.

"What the hell was that!?" Derek said in a voice comprised of total fear.

"I don't think I want to know." Ashley replied in a weak voice.

"Come on!" Shepard said, apparently less affected by it than the others.

They ran down the hill and met heavy resistance upon arriving at the spaceport, encountering more of the Geth soldiers and human-synthetic hybrids. Nevertheless the team were clearly adapting to their unfamiliar enemy as they bested them, with only a few scrapes and burns between them.

They moved along the spaceport and came to the fresh corpse of a Turian, Nihlus. There was a pool of blue blood pouring from the back of his head, where he had clearly been shot.

"A Turian? You know him?" Ashley asked her new squad mates.

"He's a Spectre he was with us on the Norm-." Kaidan was interrupted by the banging of crates.

The four soldiers lifted their firearms and aimed them at the direction the noise was coming from.

"Wait, don't shoot!" a frantic Dock-worker appeared from behind the crates.

"What are you doing sneaking around back there?" Shepard said sternly, clearly annoyed by the discovery of Nihlus' corpse.

"I'm sorry. I was hiding from those creatures." The dockworker began to stutter. "My name is Powell. I saw what happened to that Turian, the other one shot him."

This caused Shepard to exchange a confused glance with Kaidan and Derek. "Other one? What are you talking about?" Sounding even more irritated now.

"The other one was waiting here before your friend showed up. They seemed to know each other. I think your friend called him Saren. He let his guard down … and Saren killed him. Shot him right in the back." He trailed off for a split second, the previous scene still haunting him. "I'm just lucky he didn't see me behind the crates." He finished.

"We were told a Prothean beacon was brought to the spaceport. Did you see what happened to it?" Shepard asked, more calmly now.

"It's over by the other platform." Powell pointed to the far side of the spaceport where there was a tram station. "Probably where that guy Saren was headed. He hopped on the cargo train right before he killed your friend." He began to drift of again before continuing "I knew that beacon was trouble. Everything's gone to hell since we found it. They killed everyone. Everyone!" He sounded absolutely tormented. "Please, if you think you can stop this then do. This can't happen to another colony." He pleaded with the four soldiers in front of him.

"We'll do what we can." Shepard said gently. She then turned to speak to Derek, Ashley and Kaidan "We need to find that beacon before it's too late."

With that they hurried over to the train where they encountered even more resistance from a couple of even larger Geth units. This didn't stop them, as they managed to secure one of cargo trains and stay on Saren's tail.

During the train ride Ashley slumped to the ground at the corner of the cart, she rested her elbows on her knees and bowed her head staring at the floor through the space between her legs.

Derek saw this and took a seat next to her.

"You okay there Chief?" he said quietly.

"Yeah thanks." Ashley sighed.

"Really? I can't imagine I'd be if I were in your shoes."

She didn't say anything immediately "I just can't believe their all gone." She said in a quiet, breaking voice.

Derek sighed. He wasn't too sure what to say to that but gave it his best shot anyway "This isn't your fault, Williams." He said, "Just be thankful you're still standing, they didn't get all of you."

To Derek's surprise she looked up at him and gave a small smile. He could just make out that her brown eyes were slightly red and moist through the visor of her helmet but no tears had fallen.

"Thanks." She said with genuine gratitude.

Derek smiled back "No problem." He gave her closest shoulder a supportive pat and stood back up as the train pulled into its station.

The crew filled the next few minutes by running around the dock like mad-men. Saren had his Geth plant five bombs all over the station's platform. The four of them moved methodically from one bomb to another. Ashley, Derek and Shepard gave Kaidan covering fire as he diffused each of the bombs expertly.

Once the dock was clear of hostile targets they walked over to the beacon.

It appeared as a towering, silver-grey monolith emitting a green light from its centre.

"Normandy this is Shepard. The beacon is secured." Shepard said over her comms unit.

Ashley, Derek and Kaidan all stood mesmerised by the object.

"This is amazing, actually working Prothean technology. Unbelievable!" Kaidan exclaimed.

"It wasn't doing anything like that when they dug it up." Ashley said in wonder.

"Something must have activated it." Kaidan said taking several more steps towards it.

"Hold up Kaidan." Derek said, cautioning him.

Kaidan didn't hear Derek, continuing towards it totally entranced. Then all of a sudden the beacon flashed and began dragging him in and lifting him off the ground. He started to struggle in an attempt to try and get out of its pull but it wasn't working.

Shepard saw what was happening and stormed passed Ashley and Derek, grabbing Kaidan and throwing him behind her ultimately tearing him out of the beacon's field. Then the beacon began to lift her off the ground instead.

"Shepard!" Derek yelled moving towards her before he felt Ashley grab his arm and pull him back.

"No don't touch her it's too dangerous!" she said.

Shepard began to spasm in the air for several seconds as the beacon began flashing, more rapidly and then fell to the ground, hitting it hard.

"Shit." Kaidan said.

Then a second later the beacon gave a loud bang and crumbled to the floor in pieces.

The three of them stood by Shepard's unconscious body waiting for the Normandy to pick them up.


	3. Chapter 3 - First Steps

**First Steps**

Captain Anderson was standing in the cargo hold with a stern glare on his face as he watched Lieutenants Shaw and Alenko climb aboard the ship with Commander Shepard lying unconscious over Alenko's shoulder and a random female soldier in tow.

"What the hell happened down there?" Anderson snapped at the trio. "I saw five people leave this ship, only four have returned, one of them is unconscious and another I've never seen before…" he said looking at Shepard and then Williams "…and I can't see any sign of a beacon!"

"Sir I can-." Kaidan began.

"Corporal Jenkins died the second we made contact with the enemy. Sir." Derek interrupted him. "We rescued Chief Williams here from hostiles that were pursuing her. Nihlus was shot dead and the Commander made contact with the beacon, before passing out, it blew up straight afterward." He explained without hesitation.

There was a moment of silence as Anderson looked at the lieutenant in disbelief, trying to register what he had just said.

"Who were these hostiles Lieutenant? How is Williams the only survivor you found?" He said eventually, a lot calmer than he was a second ago.

"We believe they were Geth sir. Williams is the only remaining member of the 212 unit who were stationed here."

"Geth? What are the Geth doing attacking a human colony out in the traverse?" Anderson asked with a mix of worry and confusion in his question.

Derek sighed "One of the dock-workers said he witnessed another turian Spectre 'Saren' shoot Nihlus in the back of the head. We never saw him ourselves but that's the only lead we have, Sir."

Anderson face turned into a grimace "Saren?! Why am I not surprised that bastard is tied to this." He said with an underlining tone of disgust. There was a brief pause as Anderson thought over all that had been said. "Ok. Alenko get the Commander into the Med-bay so that Chakwas can take a look at her. Shaw write out the mission report and Williams I'd like to have a word with you here."

As they moved to leave Derek sent a small reassuring nod to the nervous looking Ashley before he got into the elevator with Kaidan.

"Why didn't you tell Anderson that the Commander had to pull me out of the beacons field?" Kaidan said in an annoyed tone.

This made Derek furrow his brow, very confused at the Lieutenants question. "What the hell would be the point in that?"

"I compromised the success of the mission, if Shepard dies as a result of this it's on me, now Anderson will think she was the carless one." Kaidan snapped, more annoyed with himself than with Derek.

"Hey, you've got to take it easy. That mission was compromised from the word 'go'. There's no point trying to disgrace or blame you over what happened."

Kaidan took a deep sigh and ran his free hand through his hair "I guess you're right. I just feel bad about letting that happen to her."

The elevator reached the Crew deck and the doors opened they both stepped out and walked over to the Med-bay

"She _chose_ to pull you out. If you really feel that bad apologise to her when she wakes up and before you say anything, she _will_ wake up."

They walked into the Med-bay. Kaidan laid Shepard on one of the beds and explained to Chakwas what had happened, deciding not mentioning his involvement after all.

After the long explanation Chakwas began attending to Shepard's unconscious body.

"Thanks Derek." Kaidan said quietly. "I think I'll stay here for a while and keep an eye on her."

"Sure, I need to write up that report. I'll catch you later." Derek said giving Kaidan a quick pat on the shoulder and headed out of the Med-bay.

…

About three hours had passed by the time Derek had finished writing the mission report, handed over to Anderson and gotten cleaned up.

After he'd returned his armour to it's locker in the Cargo bay he headed back up to the crew deck for some sleep. The mission had been exhausting; running around chasing a beacon with a hundred killer robots firing at you can take its toll.

He arrived at the Crew deck and headed for the sleeper pods, when he suddenly stopped. Something had caught his eye.

Chief Williams was sitting at the end of one of the Mess hall tables staring into a mug she had her hands wrapped around. Derek made his way over and sat down opposite her slowly, as to not startle her, from her seemingly hypnotic state.

She looked up from her mug at him. Because she had been wearing her helmet for the entire duration of the mission Derek had been unable to get a good look at her face. He had to admit she was exceptionally pretty, not simply for an alliance marine but for a woman in general. Her black hair was tied up in a tight bun; her slightly tanned complexion complemented her dark brown eyes, which were still slightly red; however, Derek could tell she had yet to shed a tear. She had a gentle smooth face, with pronounced cheek bones and a small chin. She had a slightly pointy nose, which fitted neatly into place with the rest of her features. As he was staring he saw her full lips curl up into a small, crooked smile.

"Hey." She said quietly. "Lieutenant Shaw, right?"

He gave a warm smile back "Yeah." He said matching her volume.

"I never got the chance to thank you and the others for saving me."

"That's ok. Being polite is probably the last thing I would want to be in a situation like yours."

She gave a weak chuckle back "I suppose not but I mean it, thank you. I don't know what I would have done if you guys hadn't shown up."

"You can't allow yourself dwell on it." Derek said this in a very serious tone, because he knew all too well the dark places ones mind could take you if you allowed it, he had been there himself.

Ashley gave him a look that told him she understood why he had said that.

Derek regretted having said it instantly. He quickly changed the subject.

"So what did Anderson want to talk to you about, if you don't mind my asking?"

"He asked me to tell him what I saw when the attack hit. I explained to him what happened to my unit. Then he said he was going to assign me to the Normandy for the time being."

Derek's eyes widened slightly in surprise "He did? Well then, welcome aboard Chief." He said and gave wide smile.

His friendly manner was infectious for Ashley who had been having one of the worst days of her life up until this point. She gave him the biggest smile she had given anyone that day.

"Please, just call me Ashley." She said.

"It's a pleasure to serve with you Ashley I'm Derek. If it makes you feel anymore comfortable I was only assigned to this ship a few hours before we landed at Eden Prime. I'm just as new to this ship as you are."

"I guess that does make me feel a bit more comfortable knowing I'm not the only new kid on the block, thanks for telling me."

"No problem. I take it you haven't had a good look round the ship yet then?"

She shook her head with a shy smile, predicting what was coming next.

"Come on." He said and stood up. "If Shepard wasn't currently unconscious she would probably be doing this instead but I've got time to kill."

"Alright." She said standing up to take his lead.

Ashley couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness during her tour of the ship. Derek was being very sweet to her by making her feel so welcome but she knew that it would be short lived when he eventually found out the same thing all her superior officers found out about her.

After the tour the two of them headed to their sleeper pods.

…

Another twelve hours passed aboard the Normandy and Shepard began to stir awake from her slumber. For the first time in a long time she had been experiencing what she could only describe as a 'nightmare', something that she hadn't had to deal with since recovering from Akuze. She opened her eyes slowly, the room was spinning but she could just about make out that she was in the Med-bay.

"Doctor? Doctor Chakwas? I think she's waking up." She heard an all too familiar male voice say anxiously.

She heard light footsteps approaching her as she sat up on the side of the bed.

"You had us worried there Shepard. How are you feeling?" She looked up to see the grey-haired woman standing in front of her.

Shepard rubbed her eyes "I've felt better. How long was I out?"

"About fifteen hours. We think something happened between you and the beacon."

"It's my fault." The same familiar voice jumped in. She turned around to see Kaidan leaning against one of the beds. "I must have triggered some sort of security field when I approached it. You had to push me out the way." He continued.

Shepard noticed that his speech was laced with guilt. "You had no way to know what would happen." She said trying to reassure him.

"We don't actually know whether that was what set it off. Unfortunately we will never find out." The Doctor explained.

"The beacon exploded, an overload maybe. You were knocked out cold Williams, Shaw and I carried you back to the ship." Kaidan said, clearly still feeling guilty.

"Kaidan." Shepard said forcefully. "Don't worry about it. I appreciate your help." This time more gently.

Kaidan was surprised by her reaction "Right, sorry Ma'am." He said quietly, neither Shepard nor Chakwas noticed a small smile creep over his face.

"Physically, you are fine, although I detected some abnormal brain activity. Plus you had increased rapid eye movement, a sign typically associated with intense dreaming." The Doctor continued.

"I was more like a nightmare. Death. Destruction. None of it was clear." Shepard mumbled.

The Med-bay door whooshed open and Anderson stepped through.

"How's our XO holding up Doctor?" His deep voice rumbled across the room.

"All the readings look normal. I'd say our commander is going to be fine." The Doctor said confidently.

"That's the first good news we've had all day. Shepard I need to speak with you – in private." Anderson looked at Chakwas and Alenko. They took the hint.

"Aye, aye, Captain. I'll be in the mess if you need me." Kaidan said and snapped of a quick salute before leaving.

Once he had left the Captain began "Sounds like that beacon hit you pretty hard. You sure you're okay?"

"Aside from losing a soldier under my command and Intel dropping the ball on the assignment, yeah I'm fine." She said in a sharp tone, annoyance clearly set in her emerald green eyes.

"I'm sorry about Jenkins; he had a lot of potential; I found it appropriate to assign Gunnery Chief Williams as a replacement. As far as the Geth are concerned, nobody could have predicted that. They haven't been seen outside the Perseus Vale in over two-hundered years." Anderson said calmly, trying to diffuse Shepard's temper.

She gave a deep sigh letting out some of her frustration "Williams is a good soldier at least there's some good news. What is it you wanted to talk about in private Captain?"

"I'm not going to lie to you Shepard things look bad. Nihlus is dead and the beacon was destroyed the council will want answers."

Shepard rolled her eyes at this "I did nothing wrong Captain. Hopefully the council can see that."

"I had Lieutenant Shaw write up the mission report on your behalf, while you were unconscious. Don't worry you're a damned hero in my books. I didn't want to talk about that anyway. It's Saren the other turian Spectre." Anderson said in a grave voice. "If he's working with the Geth it means he has gone rogue. A rogue Spectre is trouble but a rogue Saren…" He shook his head, with fear glazed over his eyes.

"What's so bad about Saren specifically?" Shepard asked.

"He _hates_ humans."

"Why?" She asked, irritated at the notion.

"He believes humans are blight on the galaxy. This wasn't a simple attack; this was an act of war! Now he has the geth following him _and_ the information stored on the beacon." Anderson was beginning to get angry himself.

"Wait, I had some sort of 'vision' after I made contact with the beacon of synthetics, geth maybe, they were slaughtering people." Shepard rubbed her forehead slightly confused at her own explanation.

"We'll have to report this to the council." Anderson said very seriously.

"They'll think I'm crazy!" Shepard said dismissively.

"You'll need any edge you can get over Saren if you want to stop him."

"I'll find someway to take him down." Shepard said in a cold tone.

"I don't doubt you but it won't be that easy. He's a Spectre, he do anything and go anywhere. We need the Council on our side for this one."

"If we dig up some proof and expose Saren to the Council, they'll revoke his Spectre status."

"We're already on our way to the Citadel now. You should head on up to the bridge. I'll contact ambassador Udina to see if can get us an audience with the council. He'll want to see us as soon as we arrive."

"Thanks Captain."

The two of them headed out of the Med-bay. Anderson walked across the mess hall to his cabin.

Shepard stopped in her tracks as soon as she saw Lieutenant Shaw and Chief Williams sitting at a table in the mess hall in the middle of a conversation. They both stopped and stood up when they saw her approach.

"Commander, it's good to see you back up on your feet." Derek said giving her a quick salute.

"Thank you for filling in the mission report Shaw."

"No worries, Ma'am, anytime."

She turned to look at Ashley "I see the Lieutenants been looking after you while I was out." She said with a small smirk on her face. "I hope you're recovering from what happened." She continued, her smirk gone.

"Yes Ma'am." Ashley gave her a quick salute. "I have to admit I was a little nervous about being assigned onto the Normandy, at first. It's nice when someone makes you feel welcome, Derek's been very helpful." She turned and gave him a small smile, however Shepard didn't miss it.

"Already on a first name basis, eh Shaw?" She looked at Derek slyly.

Derek scratched the back of his head "I was just doing my duty as her superior officer, Ma'am." He said coolly, hoping that he was in the clear.

"Good work LT." Shepard said, letting him off the hook, for now. "Williams, we can catch up later but right now I need to head up to the bridge, we will be pulling into the Citadel any minute now. You're welcome to come with."

Just as she said that, the feeling of the ship passing through a mass relay passed through the bodies of the crew.

Shepard led them out of the Crew deck up to the bridge. Kaidan was seated in the co-pilots seat. Derek and Ashley headed over to one of the windows to get a view of the ginormous space station, which acted as the hub of all galactic activity in Council Space, home to individuals from nearly every species in the galactic community.

The Citadel had a large ring at its base, also known as the presidium, directly in the centre of the ring was a large tower, which acted as the Council Chambers. Five huge mechanical arms extended for miles from the ring, each the size of a large city, home to millions of individuals from all over the galaxy; these were the Citadel's wards. The unique structure of the Citadel, along with the purple colour produced by the surrounding nebula made it an awesome sight.

As the Normandy flew in closer they passed the Citadel fleet ships that were stood on guard floating around in the open space.

"Look at the size of that ship!" Ashley said in wonder as they passed a single ship that was well over ten times the size of the Normandy.

"The Ascension, Flagship of the Citadel fleet." Kaidan explained.

"Well, size isn't everything." Joker mumbled unimpressed.

"Why so touchy, Joker?" Derek teased.

"I'm just saying you need firepower too." Joker quickly retorted.

"Look at that monster! Its main gun could rip through the barriers of any ship in the Alliance fleet." Ashley countered.

Joker couldn't respond as he began communicating with the Citadel control, as to gain access to an Alliance controlled dock.

The Normandy glided swiftly into dock. Alenko, Shaw, Shepard and Williams all headed down to the Cargo bay to suit up for their meeting with the council, so as to 'look the part'.


	4. Chapter 4 - Political Maelstrom

**Political Maelstrom**

Anderson and the squad from Eden Prime were all standing around silently in the ambassador's office, on the Citadel's presidium. There was a grand view from the office balcony: clean white stone that was used for the buildings, accompanied by the exotic fauna and a shimmering blue lake that ran down the middle of the presidium gave it an almost tranquil feel. The embassies of the most dominant races in the galaxy were dotted all along its landscape, their citizens wandered around the presidium to and fro, running errands or simply doing business. If the Citadel was the hub of the galactic community, then the presidium was the hub of the Citadel, ironically making it just as crooked as some parts in the Terminus systems.

"This is an outrage! The Council would step in if the geth attacked a turian Colony!" Ambassador Udina spat at the three council members who were displayed on holographic projections in his office.

"The turians don't found colonies on the borders of the Terminus Systems Ambassador." The Salarian Councilor, Valern, said in a very matter-of-fact way. He was easily able to destroy the logic behind Udina's comparison.

"Humanity was well aware of the risks when you went into the traverse," Tevos added. She was the Asari Councilor, and as such boasted a regal appearance. As a Matriarch, Tevos had centuries worth of diplomatic experience and it clearly showed.

"What about Saren? You can't just ignore a rogue Spectre I demand action!" Udina exclaimed. He was absolutely livid. It was understandable considering that a Council-sanction Spectre had just attacked a human colony.

"You don't get to make demands of the Council, Ambassador," Sparatus responded with a smug tone. Being a Turian, he was still more than a little upset over the First Contact War, or the Relay 314 incident as the Hierarchy liked to put it. His dislike for the Alliance in general could be easily seen in his tone, position, and overall contempt for any advances made by humanity. The fact that Udina was accusing a Council Spectre, a turian and arguably the best one at that, it was clear Sparatus was not going to be cooperative.

"Citadel security is looking into your charges against Saren. We will discuss the C-sec findings at the hearing, not before." Tevos said before leaning forward to press a button on the panel in front of her. The council's holographic projections then blinked and vanished.

The ambassador walked over from where he had been standing with his hands bolted behind his back and approached Anderson and Shepard who had been listening in silently from the other side of the large office.

"Captain Anderson. I see you brought half your crew with you." The ambassador said as a cold, snide remark.

"Just the ground team from Eden Prime. In case you had any questions." Anderson explained not rising to the ambassador's hostility.

"I read the mission report. I assume it is accurate."

"It is. Sounds like you've convinced the council to give us an audience."

"They aren't happy about it, Saren is their top agent. They aren't taking kindly to him being accused of treason." Udina said crossing his arms in front of him.

"It's the truth. Saren is a threat to every human colony out there. The council has to listen to us!" Shepard butted in.

"Settle down Commander. You've already done enough to jeopardize your Spectre candidacy, what with Nihlus dead and the beacon being destroyed." Udina said irritably.

"That's on Saren not her." Anderson defended.

"Then we better hope C-sec find something in their investigation. Otherwise the council will use this as an excuse to keep you out of the Spectres." Udina continued. "Anderson, come with me. Shepard, bring yourself and your team up to the Citadel tower in half an hour, so we can get on with this hearing."

Anderson and Udina then headed out of the office.

"And that's why I hate politicians." Ashley said quietly to Derek.

…

As Shepard and her team entered the Council chambers they saw two turians having an argument.

"Saren's hiding something, give me more time! Stall them!" The one wearing blue armour said.

"Stall the Council? Don't be ridiculous! Your investigation is over, Garrus." The other one, dressed in dark red armour, replied. He then walked away to the exit.

Garrus then noticed Shepard and her squad approaching.

"Commander Shepard? I'm Garrus Vakarian. I was the officer in charge of the C-sec investigation into Saren."

"Sounds like you really want to bring him down." Shepard replied.

"I don't trust him at all. Something bout him rubs me the wrong way. As a Spectre his movements are classified. I'm unable to find any hard evidence." Garrus explained.

"I think the Council's ready for us Commander." Kaidan said when he saw Anderson beckoning them over from the top of the staircase.

"Good luck Shepard, maybe they'll listen to you." Garrus said, before she left him.

They took a long ascent up the large staircase to where the council were stood. The chambers were even grander than the Presidium. There was a large window that ran the scale of the tower, allowing light from the outside to flood in and illuminate the entirety of the chamber. There were balconies above surrounding where the council stood, where multitudes of politicians and dignitaries from all different species stood, watching over the hearing that was about to take place.

"The hearing has already started come on." Anderson said hurriedly once they got him

"The geth attack is a matter of concern but there is no evidence to indicate Saren's involvement." Tevos was talking to Udina who was giving the council a cold glare, much like he had done in his office half an hour ago.

There was a large holographic projection of Saren towering over everyone in the chamber, Shepard and her squad began to feel uncomfortable under his threatening gaze.

"An eye witness saw him kill Nihlus in cold blood!" Udina countered, pointing at Saren accusingly.

"We read the Eden Prime report. The testimony of one traumatised dock-worker is hardly compelling evidence." Valern said as if the statement was obvious.

"I resent these accusations. Nihlus was a fellow Spectre and a friend." Saren's dual-toned voice resonated in the chambers.

"That just let you catch him off guard!" Anderson said angrily.

"Ah, Captain Anderson. You always seem to be involved when humanity presses false charges against me." Saren said unsurprised. "And this must be your protégé, Commander Shepard. The one who let the beacon get destroyed." He said mockingly.

"How do you even know about that? It was classified information. The only way you could know is if you were there!" Shepard said with fury in her voice.

"I read Nihlus' files; they were passed on to me after his death. I was unimpressed Shepard." Saren said judgingly, shaking his head in disapproval.

"You blew up the beacon and now you're trying to cover it up!" Shepard said sharply.

"Shift the blame on someone else, typical. Captain Anderson as taught you well. But what can you expect from a human?" The large hologram of Saren turned to face the council.

"You see? He hates humanity. That's why he attacked Eden Prime!" Shepard defended.

"Your species need to learn its place, Shepard. Humanity isn't ready to join the council. You're not even ready to join the Spectres." Saren pointed one of his taloned fingers at her.

Councilor Sparatus gave a slow nod of agreement but said nothing.

"He has no right to say that! That's not his decision!" Udina's voice roared through the chamber as he reached his breaking point.

"Commander Shepard's Spectre candidacy is not the purpose of this hearing," Tevos said in an attempt to calm the fuming ambassador.

"This meeting has no purpose. The humans are wasting our time Councilor." Saren responded impatiently.

"There is still one outstanding issue, Commander Shepard's vision." Anderson spoke up.

"How can I defend my innocence against this kind of testimony?" Saren questioned in disgust.

"I agree. We need solid evidence, not wild imaginings and speculations." Sparatus said.

"Is there anything more you wish to add Commander?" Valern asked. He appeared slightly sympathetic to the Alliance entourage, perhaps understanding their position. After all the salarians and humans did share a lot of qualities, the ability of constantly pushing any limits being one of them.

Shepard shook her head in disbelief "You've clearly made your choice I won't waste my breath."

The Councilor's looked at each other, shaking their heads, confirming their verdict in silence.

"Ambassador your petition to have Saren's Spectre status removed has been denied."

"I'm glad to see justice has been served." Saren said triumphantly, his hologram then blinking out of the chambers.

The party of humans walked back down the stairs with their heads lowered, in defeat.

"It was a mistake bringing you into that hearing Captain you and Saren's history made the council question our motives." Udina said after a long pause.

"I know Saren. The only reason he is working with the geth is to exterminate the entire human race. Every colony we have is at risk. Every world we control is in danger. Even Earth isn't safe!" Anderson was beginning to sound distressed, something Shepard hadn't seen in him ever.

"We need to deal with Saren ourselves." Shepard concluded

"As a Spectre he is virtually untouchable. We need to find some way to expose him." Udina said.

"What about that turian C-sec investigator, what was his name? Garrus." Derek offered.

"That's right! He seemed like he was close to finding something on Saren." Kaidan added.

"Any idea where we could find him?" Shepard said, turning to face Udina.

"I have a contact in C-sec, Harkin. He will help us track Garrus down."

"Forget Harkin." Anderson scoffed. "They suspended him last month for drinking on the job. I won't waste my time with that loser."

"You won't have to. I don't want the Council using you and Saren's history as an excuse. Shepard will handle this."

"You're right. I'll step aside for this one." Anderson said reluctantly knowing Udina was right.

"Don't worry Captain I'll find us something." Shepard said, aware of Anderson's unwillingness.

"Very well, good luck finding some evidence Shepard. Captain, come see me in my office later." Udina said before creeping away back down the stairs to the elevator.

"Harkin will likely be in Chora's Den. It's a dingy little club down in the lower wards." Anderson added before turning to walk away.

"Hold up Captain. What happened between you and Saren that is so major you can't be involved in this investigation?" Shepard asked, concerned for her Captain.

It took Anderson a few seconds before he began "Twenty years ago I was sent on an assignment with Saren into the Skyllian Verge to eliminate a known terrorist threat. But a lot of innocent people died along the way, the official records just covered it all up." Anderson said with a sorrowful expression on his face.

After listening to Anderson, Derek's brow lowered. His fists clenched into tight balls. His nostrils flared. His shoulders tensed. His breath became heavier, as he tried to contain his sudden boiling anger. He didn't want to embarrass himself by venting it all out in front of his fellow crewmen but his sudden, aggressive change in appearance was noticed by one of them, although they decided not to say anything then and there.

"But I've seen how he operates. No conscience. No hesitation. He'd kill a thousand innocent civilians to end a war without a second thought." Anderson continued.

"Sometimes a thousand have to die so a million can live." Shepard said not understanding Anderson's disposition.

Anderson glared "That's only if there is no other way." He snapped. "Saren doesn't look for an alternative he rushes in without a second thought. He's a twisted, monster who enjoys the violence and the killing."

Shepard didn't say anything and gave a single slow nod, understanding that Saren didn't think in the moral sense. There was no 'lesser of two evil's' in his mind, only the 'easiest option'.

"Good luck Commander." Anderson said more calmly now and walked away with his arms tensely behind his back, down the stairs towards the elevator.

…

Shepard had led her squad over to a citadel transit station, located outside the council chambers where they picked up a cab. Kaidan sat in the front, next to Shepard who was driving. Ashley and Derek sat in the back.

A couple of minutes had passed. Kaidan and Shepard had been talking over what had happened during the hearing as well as about Anderson and Saren. Ashley and Derek had been sitting in an awkward silence.

Ashley turned to look over at Derek whose face was turned away from her as he stared out of the tiny window, resting his elbow on his knee and his chin on his fist; his shoulders were still tensed from when Anderson had been speaking.

Ashley, having been the one to notice this, decided to try and ease him out of whatever was bugging him. "LT?" She said at a volume low enough so that neither Shepard nor Kaidan would hear them.

"Hmm?" He snapped his head around to look at her, breaking out of his trance. His blue eyes stared at hers in mild shock.

"What happened to you back there?"

His eyes widened a fraction, enough for her to detect. Shit! She noticed. He thought to himself. "Back where?" He tried feigning confusion.

Ashley didn't say anything; she didn't have to with the look she gave him. Her dark brown eyes frowned back at him almost as if to say 'Don't ever try and lie to me again.'

Derek gave a heavy sigh under her scrutiny, burying his face into his hands before looking back up but his eyes did not meet hers, instead he stared at the back of the seat in front of him. "Just…Something Anderson said." He mumbled.

"About Saren?" She asked.

"Yeah…Well, no, not about Saren specifically." He was beginning to get annoyed with her prying.

"I don't understand…"

"Yeah, well don't trouble yourself." He said in a sharp hiss but still only loud enough so that only Ashley heard him, Kaidan and Shepard were still in deep conversation. He ran both his hands through his short blonde hair and then rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and fore finger, his eyes were shut gently.

In a given situation such as this, Ashley would have thought of Derek as an 'asshole', plain and simple and would have happily gone out of her way to ensure they never spoke again. However, she was aware this was not usual of him. Up until now he had been extremely hospitable towards her, for him to suddenly transform into this only meant something had been eating away at him, for a long time.

"Derek." She tried again this time in a gentle voice. "You can talk to me."

It took him a second to register just how quickly the tables had turned. A few hours ago he'd been helping to pull her out of that 'dark place' and now he found her doing the exact same for him.

He let out yet another sigh "The official records just covered it all up." He said slowly, not mumbling this time.

"What?"

"What Anderson said 'the official records just covered it all up.'." He looked at her to see whether she got what he was talking about.

"Has something along those lines happen to you?"

He nodded slowly "It's a long story, too long to explain right now. If you really want to find out, do both of us a favour and ask me some other time."

She nodded at him in understanding "Ok."

They remained silent again until the cab eventually arrived at the lower wards.

Just before they got out Derek grabbed Ashley's wrist softly so as to keep her seated.

"Hey. I'm sorry for getting angry at you. That was rude of me. I appreciate you trying to help." His eyes were stricken with guilt.

"It would take a lot more than that for me to get mad at you." She said tenderly her eyes showed him that she was being serious and not in the least bit cynical. In that split second time seemed to slow down drastically for Derek before speeding back up as she quickly got out of the cab to rejoin Shepard.

Derek noticed his heart was beating very heavily. He blamed it on the fact that old memories were beginning to resurface, no thanks to Anderson but something in the back of his mind suggested something else had caused this. Nevertheless he ignored it and followed Ashley out of the cab.


	5. Chapter 5 - Street Cleaning Part 1

**Street cleaning**

Shepard and her squad were met with an unpleasant surprise the moment they reached Chora's den. Outside the club's entrance were two turians wearing dark clothing that had opened fire within a split second of seeing the Alliance entourage. The Alliance squad dove into cover, trying to avoid the incoming bursts of fire. Only a couple of rounds managed to connect with their target, Shepard's shields absorbing much of the damage and leaving her unscathed. Kaidan immediately overloaded one of the assassins' shield's leaving him exposed long enough for Ashley to land a clean head shot on him with her sniper rifle. The second assassin promptly took cover and ejected a heat sink. He was unable to maneuver as he pinned down by the Alliance troops' fire. Seeing an opening, Derek took a chance and flanked the turian from the right. As he was focused solely on the marines in front of him, the turian failed to realize the fourth soldier circling around him and by the time he did it was too late. Derek immediately peppered the assassin with dozens of rounds, ensuring his death.

"Who on earth where they?" Ashley said in shock, adrenaline still pumping through her body.

"I'd bet my credits that they're tied in with Saren." Kaidan replied, inspecting one of the dead assassin's omni-tools for clues.

"We need to keep moving and be extra cautious." Shepard darkly said, nodding her head towards the door of the club.

The moment Shepard and her squad entered Chora's den, the smell of cheap alcohol and body odor engulfed their nostrils. The sickening smell was only an indication of the types of patrons the den served. The club itself was a large circular room with a dome shaped bar positioned in the centre. The lighting itself was dim at best, making it hard to see clearly beyond a few feet. Multiple tables and seats were placed around the edge of the room with a perfect view of one of many platforms that held a mixture of exotic asari and human dance girls. This was without a doubt one of the shadiest clubs on the Citadel, attracting some of the worst low lives. How the bar continued functioning was a mystery.

Shepard scanned the room, searching for someone in particular. The moment her eyes laid on a hunched figure sitting at the bar wearing a C-SEC uniform, she knew they had found their man. Anderson had been right; Harkin was a loser and made a suitable patron for the place. He was a balding middle-aged man with an unhealthy grey complexion, whose years of regular alcohol consumption had caught up to him in the form of a beer-gut. When Shepard approached him he made an unimpressive attempt to hit on her, this made Kaidan step in and threaten the C-SEC officer.

[Can use some dialogue here]

It had taken Harkin a while to give Garrus' whereabouts as he tried to distract Shepard by telling her that Anderson used to be a spectre and how it was related to Saren. Shepard had almost been tempted to let him tell his story but her professional side ensured she stayed on track, demanding Harkin answer her question. He finally complied and told Shepard that Garrus had been to visit a Doctor Michel in her med clinic on the other side of the wards. Shepard and her squad had quickly turned tail leaving the club, hoping they wouldn't have to return any time soon.

"Why didn't Captain Anderson tell us he used to be a Spectre?" Derek asked his squad mates.

"Maybe it's not true, Harkin's an ass bet he's just messing with our heads." Kaidan said, still angry with Harkin for running his mouth at Shepard.

It took the group a couple of minutes to reach the med-clinic, as they climbed several stairs to reach a higher lever of the wards, where it was located. They turned the corner and saw the door to the med-clinic at the other end of the walkway.

"Hold up." Shepard said. "Shaw and Alenko wait here, Williams and I are going in. you two keep your eyes peeled for anything unusual. We don't want anybody ambushing us when we leave.

Kaidan and Derek nodded in unison and stood on guard. Ashley followed Shepard towards the clinic. As they approached they slowed down, they could here raised voices on the other side of the door. Shepard drew her pistol and nodded at Ashley, indicating that she should do the same.

"I didn't tell anyone I swear!" A red headed woman with a French accent cried out to a group of armed men who were surrounding her.

There was a short partition running down the centre of the clinic, the doctor and group of men were on the far side of it. Garrus, who had apparently been unnoticed, was crouched on the other side, with a pistol drawn.

"That was smart Doc, now if Garrus comes around you stay smart." The man closest to her replied, who was more than likely the leader of the group. "Now keep your mouth shut or we'll…"

He was interrupted when the door to the clinic whooshed open and Shepard and Ashley stepped through with their own pistols drawn. The leader then grabbed the doctor and held her as a human shield.

"Who are you!" he yelled.

"Let her go." Shepard said harshly.

Shepard had seen Garrus the second she entered through the doorway, it had been a complete surprise to both her and Ashley but they didn't make his presence aware to the mercenaries; this allowed him to spin around from cover and land a precise, killing headshot on the leader, catching the remaining four mercenaries completely off guard. This gave both Shepard and Ashley the chance to pick off one mercenary each. The remaining two had retreated to the back of the clinic and had taken cover behind some boxes. Garrus was in the perfect position, as he saw a bunch of oxygen canisters lined up along the back wall, between the two of them. He fired another single shot, at one of the canisters creating an explosion which threw the mercenaries against a wall with such force, they died instantly.

Once the gunfire had died down Garrus, Shepard and Ashley holstered their weapons

"Perfect timing Shepard, gave me a clear shot at that bastard." Garrus said with a hint of satisfaction in his voice.

"No problem. I'm just glad you were here to help." Shepard replied.

"Doctor Michel, are you hurt?" Garrus asked.

"No I'm ok, thanks to you, all of you." She replied, a little worn out from the commotion.

"I know those men threatened you." Shepard began. "But if you tell us who they work for we can protect you." She reassured the Doctor in a calm voice.

"They work for Fist. They wanted to shut me up, keep me from telling Garrus about the Quarian." She replied her voice was trembling slightly.

"Quarian, what Quarian?"

The doctor took a deep breath. "A few days ago a Quarian stopped by here. She had been shot and wouldn't tell me who did it. I could tell she was scared, probably on the run. She asked me about the shadow broker. She wanted to exchange information for a safe place to hide."

"Where is she now?"

"I put her in contact with fist. He is an agent for the Shadow Broker."

"Not any more. He's working for Saren now and the Shadow Broker isn't too happy about it." Garrus interjected.

"Fist betrayed the Shadow broker? That's stupid, even for him." The Doctor said in astonishment.

"The Quarian must have something Saren wants. Something worth crossing the Shadow Broker to get." Garrus said with dead certainty.

"Do we know anything about this information?" Shepard asked the doctor.

"I'm not sure." The doctor began rubbing her forehead to think. "She didn't… Wait a minute! Geth. Her information had something to do with the geth!"

"She must be able to link Saren to the geth. If we get that information there is no way the council can ignore it!" Garrus said, now even more motivated.

"Time we paid Fist a visit." Shepard said slyly looking over at Ashley.

"This is your show Shepard but I want to bring Saren down as much as you do. I'm coming with you." Garrus stated, leaving no room for an argument.

"But you're a Turian." Ashley said suspiciously. Despite being a C-SEC officer Ashley questioned whether Garrus could handle the conflict of interests. Saren was a turian after all and any stain on his part, especially as big as the one Shepard was trying to prove would disgrace both the Hierarchy and the Council.

"I couldn't find the proof I needed in my investigation but I know what was really going on. Saren's a traitor to the council, and a disgrace to my people!" He growled, frustrated that he was being made to appeal.

This made Shepard smirk. She saw genuine disgust in the turian and a strong drive to see justice done. "You've made your case. Welcome aboard, Garrus."

Garrus twitched his mandibles into a Turian equivalent of a smile.

Ashley glared at the Turian, although neither he nor Shepard noticed. It was probably for the best as squad cohesion was necessary at this point. They couldn't afford to make a mistake this late into the game now.

"We aren't the only ones going after Fist. The Shadow Broker hired a krogan bounty hunter named Wrex to take him out."

Shepard had recalled seeing two krogans having a dispute outside the door to the back office in Chora's Den. Krogans were renowned for their superior size and brute strength compared to most other species but the one whom Shepard assumed was Wrex was abnormally large compared to the general population of Krogan.

"I think I know who you're talking about. A krogan might come in handy." She said.

"Last I heard he was at C-Sec Academy." Garrus responded

"What's he doing there?" Ashley asked.

"Fist accused him of making threats. We brought him in for a little talk"

"Then that's our next stop." Shepard concluded.

Garrus bid farewell to Doctor Michel and led Shepard and Ashley out of the clinic towards the Academy. They picked up Kaidan and Derek on their way, who were oblivious to the firefight that had been waged in the clinic.

"Are you alright Shepard? What happened in their? You were gone a lot longer than I thought you'd be." Kaidan was highly concerned about Shepard's well-being and it showed.

Shepard then explained everything that had happened while she was in the clinic.

"Damn it! I had a feeling you ran into trouble. I should have been there to help." Kaidan criticized himself.

"Kaidan, listen. You did nothing wrong." She said sternly. "I'm pleased that you followed your orders and stayed where I left you. If there had been more assassins lurking around the corner and you weren't there then we would have been in danger. Stop beating yourself up the whole time, that's an order." She said in a lighter tone.

"Right, sorry Ma'am, won't happen again." He said, his mind beginning to process her words.

The group finally arrived at the C-Sec Academy, in time to see the krogan known as Wrex having yet another dispute this time with a, much smaller in comparison, human C-Sec officer.

"Witnesses saw you making threats in Fist's bar. Stay away from him." The officer said.

Wrex stood like a statue with his arms crossed looking down, unimpressed by the man. "I don't take orders from you." The krogan faintly growled, his deep booming voice adding force behind his words. It appeared as if nothing was capable of stopping this krogan. He gave off an aura of power and strength, and the many scars that decorated his face only enlarged the power of his presence.

To his credit the officer stood his ground, standing his ground against the larger figure. "This is your only warning Wrex."

The Krogan leaned forward slightly. "You should warn Fist. I will kill him."

The man took a small step back. "Do you want me to arrest you?" That would have been comical to see, considering the krogan looked like he could take on the entire station's security.

"I want you to try." Wrex smugly chuckled at the thought. He then looked up, his blood red eyes caught Shepard and her followers staring at him. He shoved the C-Sec officer aside and stomped over to where she was stood.

"Go on get out of here!" The officer yelled after him. He was ignored.

"Yes human?" Wrex said to Shepard.

"My name's Shepard. I'm going after Fist. I've been told we share a common interest." She turned to look at Garrus.

The krogan took a drawn out sigh. "Ahh Shepard, Commander Shepard. I've heard a lot about you." He said. "We're both warriors Shepard so I'll give you fair warning. I'm going to kill Fist."

"Fist knows you're coming. We'll all have a better chance if we work together." Garrus said to Wrex.

Wrex turned back to look at Shepard. "My people have a saying. Seek the enemy of your enemy and you'll find a friend."

"We humans have a similar saying." Shepard smirked and extended her hand, welcoming him on board.

Wrex shook it. "Let's go. I'd hate to keep Fist waiting." He said in a menacing tone.

At that moment Derek was distracted by Ashley who gave a sharp sigh and a roll of her eyes.

He gave her a quizzical look. She realized that he had seen her reaction and simply looked away from him back at Shepard who was talking.

"Alright people" Shepard turned to face her increasingly large group. "We all know how small Chora's Den is and because of that its best of I lead a small team to avoid friendly fire. Kaidan and Ashley I want you two to head back to the Normandy."

"Wha- Ma'am may I…" Ashley began to object.

"That's an order Williams." Shepard stated, her commander's voice becoming clear that she was not to be challenged.

"Come on Chief." Kaidan said.

Derek gave Ashley a light pat on the shoulder as she and Kaidan walked past him over to the elevator which led to the docking bay. He found it easy to understand her frustration at that moment; she wanted to see some action not stay cooped up on board the ship. The all too familiar feeling of rejection still lingered with him. He felt bad for her but at the same time he couldn't have cared less. The soldier in him was demanding to be let back out and it wasn't going to let anyone get in its way.

 **Apologies for taking so long to publish this latest chapter, life have made me very busy lately. I will be able to produce a following chapter much sooner.**


	6. Chapter 6 - Street Cleaning Part 2

**Street Cleaning – Part 2**

Shepard's decision to bring fewer people with her to Chora's Den was a wise one. The club had clearly been shutdown, making them all the more wary as they prepared to enter. Garrus was able to override the lock on the door, when it slid open they were greeted with a hail of gunfire.

"Get down!" Shepard yelled.

They all did except for Wrex, who instead roared into laughter and charged at the closest gunman. When they made contact, the man was thrown back into one of the nearby tables. He did not get back up.

Meanwhile Garrus had been making good use of his marksmanship. Although the Striker was not a particularly good model of sniper rifle, he was still able to pick off three men who had taken cover on the other side of the room, each in succession.

The krogan bouncer, who had originally been guarding the door to Fists office, was making his approach. Shepard reacted instantly by showering the large target with suppressive fire, which slowed the lumbering creature even more. Wrex turned to face his distracted brethren and didn't wait to unload the entire contents of his shotgun's thermal clip into his face, improving the odds for Shepard and her squad drastically.

Derek waited for the gunfire to die down and then quickly broke out of cover. He mimicked Wrex's tactic by sending a push biotic at the nearest man to him who was knocked off his feet, although when he landed the impact only grazed him. Derek had been prepared for this and fired a couple of blast from his shotgun to finish him off. He was then hit in the back by gunfire; his biotic barrier protected him from any serious damage although he was now exposed. The man who had fired at him was stationed on top of the big dome shaped bar in the centre of the room. Derek used a lift projectile in the hopes that the man would hit the ground below when it wore off. However, he didn't have to wait as Shepard acted by firing a burst from her assault rifle, ending him quickly.

Meanwhile Wrex had made his way behind the counter at the bar where two other men had been positioned. They all but shit themselves when they saw the large krogan heading towards them with a sadistic grin on his face. Before they could escape he grabbed one of them by the neck and threw him into the other. They both collided into a set of glasses, which shattered and lacerated the two of them.

Once the firefight had ceased, they moved towards the door to Fist's office. They stood at the door and each gave a nod to Shepard, indicating they were ready for another hostile encounter. She operated the door.

"Stop right there! Don't come any closer!" A worker cried. The way he held his weapon was a clear indication that he was not a trained professional.

"Warehouse workers. All the real guards must be dead." Derek said, looking at the two men in front of them, who appeared to have one pistol between them.

"Stay back or I'll shoot!"

"This would be a good time to find somewhere else to work." Shepard casually said, ignoring the pistol aimed directly at her cranium.

"Yeah, right. Good idea." The other worker said, in an attempt to dissuade his colleague.

"Ah, hell. Fist isn't paying me enough for this." The one holding the pistol said and they both exited the door back to the main part of the club.

"It would have been quicker to just kill them." Wrex grumbled, disappointed.

"Shooting people isn't always the answer." Garrus criticized. As a C-SEC officer it was his job to de-escalate the situation and use violence only as a last resort.

The corridor they had entered turned through into another doorway. The squad rushed through and saw that it opened up into a large office. At the desk was a man, who they could only assume was Fist. For a crime boss he appeared relatively young. He was a short, stocky man and had a couple of subtle scars running along his chin. His flattop and jaw line complimented each other to give his head a peculiar square-like shape.

"Why do I have to do everything myself? Time to die little soldiers!" he yelled angrily. He then ducked behind his desk and two turrets emerged from either side of the office and engaged their targets.

All four of them were pinned down behind a table, which they had overturned. Garrus took the initiative by sending an overload tech at one of the turrets disrupting its firing pattern. Shepard lined up her shot and finished it off.

Wrex began to fire blindly over the cover at the second turret, he was fortunate and managed to land a couple of clean shots on it, ruining its shields and tearing through its armour.

Meanwhile, Derek had been tracking Fist and was waiting for him to pop his head up so he could land an incapacitating shot. Fist clearly had very little experience when it came to combat, as he stood up fully from behind his desk, exposing his torso. Derek fired and landed two shots on Fist's right shoulder. He dropped his pistol and fell to the floor.

"Nice job lieutenant." Shepard congratulated, hurrying over to Fist.

"Wait! Don't kill me! I surrender!" Fist pleaded, his panicked face displaying his absolute fear .

Shepard stood over him and pulled her pistol out, aiming it at his head.

"Where's the Quarian?" She said angrily, she was in no mood to be jerked around.

"She's not here. I don't know where she is. That's the truth!" He whimpered.

"He's no use to you now. Let me kill him." Wrex deadpanned.

"Wait! I don't know where she is but I know where you can find her. She said she'd only deal with the Shadow Broker himself."

"Face to face? Impossible. Even I was hired through an agent." Wrex said.

Fist began to stand up. "Nobody meets with the Shadow Broker. Ever. Even I don't know his true identity. I told her I'd set a meeting up. But when she shows up it will be Saren's men waiting for her."

Shepard's face turned into a cold glare, she stepped forward and grabbed Fist by his collar.

"Give me the location. Now!" She demanded. Shepard was beyond furious and that fury translated effectively to her words.

"Here in the Wards. In a back alley, by the markets. She supposed to meet them now. You can make it if you hurry."

Before she could respond Shepard heard a gun being drawn form its magnetic holster. She turned around to see Wrex aiming his shotgun at Fist and then let fire a single shot. He was dead when she looked back.

"Spirits!" Garrus exclaimed.

"The Shadow Broker hired me to kill him. I don't leave jobs half done."

Shepard sighed. Fist had surrendered, even if he was a scumbag; he didn't deserve that but she had made a deal with Wrex.

"Just remember who's in charge next time you decide to pull of another stunt like that." Her words weren't hostile but still contained a threatening undertone.

"He was the only contract I had left. Don't we have something more pressing to worry about?" Wrex said monotonously.

"That Quarian is dead if we don't go now." Derek jumped in trying to diffuse the situation.

"Correct." She deadpanned. "Come on." She gestured to her squad mates and led them out of the door.

…

They had had to deal with the remnants of Fists thugs when they left the club but they made short work of them. It took them a minute to reach the alley from the club and they saw the Quarian. Next to her was a Turian wearing a mask and behind them in the distance were a couple of Salarians also wearing inconspicuous clothing. The Turian got even closer to the Quarian and stroked her arm, she responded by slapping his hand off of her. This annoyed him and he drew a sidearm from its holster.

Garrus, however had managed to line up his sights with the turians head and fired. The turian had strong shielding, which had depleted but he was still standing, although he was no longer aiming at the Quarian.

Derek was closing the distance between himself and the turian. He then slammed the butt of his shotgun into the turians hand, making him drop his sidearm. Derek fired a killing blow straight to the turians stomach, splattering him and the nearby Quarian in specks of blue blood.

Shepard had been doing an effective job of suppressing the two Salarians who were unable to step into the fight. Wrex had them in his sights and charged into one, pasting him against the wall. He then turned to the other and landed a lethal heavy uppercut to its large head.

Shepard, satisfied with the outcome turned to the short Quarian girl.

"Fist set me up! I knew I couldn't trust him." She exclaimed, sounding angrier than scared, which was a surprise to Shepard.

"Don't worry he's been dealt with," Shepard said looking over to Wrex.

"That is settling news." She said more calmly. "Who are you?"

"My name's Shepard. I'm looking for evidence to prove Saren's a traitor."

"Then I have a chance to repay you for saving my life. But not here, we'd need to go somewhere safe."

"We could take her back to the human embassy." Derek suggested.

"Good idea. Udina will want to see this anyway." Shepard said.

…

After a long trip, in a very cramped sky car the squad made their way up from the embassy entrance to Udina's office.

Udina was standing in the centre of the room with Anderson. He'd been expecting them.

"You're not making my life any easier Shepard." He drawled. "Fire fights in the Wards. An all out assault on Chora's Den, do you know how many... Who is this, a Quarian? What are you up to Shepard?" He interrupted his own train of thought.

"She has information that can help us Ambassador."

"What sort of information?"

"Information linking Saren to the Geth."

"I see. Maybe you'd better start at the beginning Ms…" Udina turned to look at the Quarian.

"My name is Tali. Tali'zorah nar rayya. I was on my pilgrimage, my rite of passage into adulthood. As part of this, it is my duty to leave the flotilla in search of any valuble information or technology that I can bring back in order to aid my people."

"I assume you found something?" Shepard asked.

"I did. During my travels I began to hear reports of Geth. Since they drove my people into exile the geth have never ventured beyond the Veil. I was curious. I tracked a patrol of geth to an uncharted world. I waited for one of them to become separate from its unit then I disabled it and removed its memory core. Most of the core was wiped clean but I managed to salvage something from its audio banks."

She began operating her Omni-tool and then played a recording.

"Dened Prime was a major victory. The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit…" Said a voice, which was unmistakably Saren.

"And one step closer to the return of the Reapers." Said a different, female voice.

"That's it!" Anderson said, completely outstanded. "The mention of Eden Prime proves Saren is guilty!"

"What was he talking about? The Conduit, was it?" Shepard asked. "What is that?"

"I'm not certain. I didn't recognise the other voice, the one talking about the reapers." Udina added.

"What are they, some kind of new alien species?" Shepard turned to ask Tali.

"According to the memory core, the reapers were a highly advance machine race that existed fifty-thousand years ago. They hunted the protheans to total extinction, and then vanished. " Tali explained. "At least that's what the geth believe." She added.

"Sounds a little far-fetched." Udina huffed.

"The vision on Eden Prime. I understand it now." Shepard said rubbing her forehead. "I saw the reapers wiping out the protheans."

"The geth revere the reapers as gods and believe Saren is capable of bringing them back."

This caused a shiver to run down Shepards spine and the hairs on her neck stood up.

"The Council's just going to love this." Udina said crossing his arms and rolling his eyes.

"The reapers are a threat to every species in Citadel space. We have to tell them." Shepard argued her case, she'd be damned if a warning like this was to be ignored due to the disbelief of a narrow-minded fool like Udina.

"Regardles of what they think about the rest of it, these files prove Saren is a traitor." Anderson said impatiently.

"The Captain's right. We should still present them."

"What about her, the Quarian." Wrex asked.

"My name is Tali." She snapped at the much larger krogan. She then turned to look at Shepard. "You've seen my resourcefulness Commander. There are very few people who are capable of finding the information I uncovered. Let me come with you."

"What about your pilgrimage?"

"The pilgrimage proves we are willing to give of ourselves for the greater good. What does it say about me if I turn my back on this?" She defended

Her explanation made Derek smile to himself. He admired her willingness to prove herself.

"I'll take all the help I can get." Shepard also smiled and nodded gratefully.

"Thank you. You won't regret this." She chirped, behind her mask the white dots that were her eyes widened enough to show her excitement.

"Very well. Anderson and I will make arrangements with the council. I will inform you when they are ready to see you, Shepard." Udina said.

"Thank you Ambassador." She nodded at him, then at Anderson and then turned to leave, accompanied by her collection of exotic squad-mates.


End file.
